Three ex-Google employees launched their own streaming video site today, www.howcast.com. They envisage the site becoming the YouTube for instructional videos. Whilst employed at Google the three founders worked on the YouTube technology and also the Google Video platform.

The site has launched with professional instructional videos along the lines of ‘How to groom your cat‘. Each video has the same formula; an introduction explaining the resources you need for the task and a step-by-step guide - aided by a voiceover. You can view a text transcript of the instructions, skip to the different steps via the video controls and add your own tips below the video.

They are offering targeted advertising to business relating to the video content. For example; a painting and decorating company may want to advertise on the ‘How to paint a fence’ video page. Howcast are also offering product ads to be placed in the ‘resources you will need’ part of the video.

Howcast is leading the way in terms of advertising within and around video. It is in beta mode at the moment but I’ve no doubt it will change into full mode soon.